the Third Week after Easter
Daily Devotionals
Bowen's Daily Meditations
"Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea." - Psalms 46:2.
The language of the highest faith is the language of the highest courage. Men that are bold enough to seek the bubble reputation even in the cannon’s mouth, and who fear not that they shall ever know what fear is, may at any moment be reduced to a condition of the most abject timidity by the revelation of that God whom they have scorned to make their refuge and strength.
Fear is to be the everlasting portion of him who in this life refuses to fear. Men exclude from their attention those truths that are calculated to alarm them; and resolve to retain their self-confidence unbroken, at whatever cost. They wish to be without fear; and in many instances their wish is gratified; they pass through life, and pass away from it, without any painful apprehension. But they have only been accumulating an everlasting fund of terror and agony, and they inherit, on the other side of the grave, with incalculable interest, what they refused to receive on this side. They defended themselves against fear by the amulet of delusion by some scheme of future things which their own vain minds had elaborated; but delusion is not allowed to cross the grave; and there they will find themselves bereft of their armor. " Fear hath torment.’’ Who can express this torment? The terror-stricken soul experiences not only the inflicted sorrow of the moment, but by anticipation the dread interminable suffering of all time to come.
How shall our souls be strong in the day when Christ shall come in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ? There is another question more important; and if it be rightly answered, we can dismiss the first. What am I now fearing? The displeasure of man, or that of God? The scorn of man or that of God? When the world says, " Enter not this path," and God says, " Enter it;" when the world says, " Be conformed to me," and God says, "Be not conformed;" when the world says, " Speak not of God, of Christ, of sin, of eternity;" and God says, "Speak of them;" whom do I obey? If I fear not in my daily, hourly walk, the wrath and derision of mankind, I shall be kept from fear in the great day of God’s wrath, and shall dwell in safety where I now dwell in safety, beneath the shadow of his wings.
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